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ERP KiM Newsletter 10-05-05 Six attacks on Kosovo Serbs in only a few days Security situation in Kosovo deteriorating The most recent attacks on Serbs in Kosovo will inevitably negatively reflect on the return process and the implementation of standards. Security and normal life in Kosovo are still practically nonexistant for Serbs despite all verbal assurances that the situation is "improving"
 In the several recent days attacks and provocations against the Serb population in Kosovo have continued. Amidst overall political destabilization in the Province in which main Kosovo Albanian parties and clans keep accusing one another for assasinations, drug smuggling and various illegal activities the security for Kosovo Serbs is deteriorating too. The recent attacks will inevitably negatively reflect on the return process and the implementation of standards. Regrettably Kosovo institutions, heavily burdened by corruption and nepotism are hardly in any position to carry on necessary reforms which would make the volatile province a safe home for all communities. Yesterday, the Day of Europe was marked in Kosovo but not the Victory over Nazism and Fashism which was solemnly celebrated all over the world. Kosovo Serb community is seriously concerned with the decision of the Pristina Municipality to erect a memorial complex to Nazi collaborators and members of the notorious Skenderbeg SS Division from the Second World War. Such a "monument" would evoke the most painful memories of the Second World War pogroms against Serbs, Macedonians and Jews in Kosovo and Tetovo area. Despite several return projects which have been accomplished thanks to international assistance only a small number of Serbs have returned to their homes. Due to lack of security, free movement and no economic prospects for Serb community members among the returnees are only elderly couples. One of the most difficult obstacles for the return are unsolved property issues. After the war large Serbian private and state property was occupied by local Albanians who don't want to give their property back to their legal owners. ERPKIM Info  In ruins after 5 years of international protectorate - Roma Mahala A view of the Roma mahala in Southern (Albanian dominated) part of Mitrovica - A largest Roma settlement in Kosovo which was destroyed by Albanian extremists after the Kosovo war in 1999. The 7.000 inhabitants of this settlement fled to North Mitrovica together with Serb families who lived in the Southern part of the city. For five years local Albanian officials did not allow reconstruction of this part of the town and return of its inhabitants and it is only now that under a strong international pressure Kosovo Government is forced to act. Whether the Roma homes will be reconstructed and the return of all refugees allowed still remains to be seen. (photo Reuters) Radio Television Serbia, Belgrade Stop attacks on remaining Serb population (photo BETA: Members of the Governmental Kosovo-Metohija Council expressed their concern for the security of Serbs in Kosovo, Belgrade May 10)
"Kosmet (Kosovo and Metohija) is the only province in Europe where people are being persecuted, threatened and their property destroyed constantly on a daily basis solely because of their religious affiliation and nationality," said Djuric for Tanjug news agency. He emphasized that threats, attacks and planting of bombs in Kosovo and Metohija are continuing on the day that Europe commemorates its victory over fascism and celebrations throughout the world of the anniversary of the global triumph over hatred, intolerance, and racial, religious and national persecution. "It is UNMIK's mandate to re-establish these values on which modern Europe rests in the south Serbian province, values for which Europe fought exactly 60 years ago, and to prevent the torturing of the non-Albanian and Serbian population," emphasized Djuric. On Saturday Milenko Vulic (62) was beaten up in the village of Devet Jugovica near Pristina in front of his home. On Sunday unknown persons opened fire on three Serbian young men in an automobile in the village of Donja Brnjica. This morning the house of Danko Marinkovic was blown up and destroyed in the village of Klokot. Kosovo-Metohija Council discusses return of displaced persons
The document represents a continuation of Serbias efforts to influence UNMIK to resolve this problem inline with the obligations of the international administration to ensure the return of the displaced to Kosovo-Metohija, it was agreed at todays meeting. In that respect, it was stressed that UNMIK and Kosovo-Metohijas provisional institutions have done almost nothing to bring Serbs and other non-Albanians back to the province. Members of the Council also warned that the upcoming assessment of standards could lead to a dangerous sidelining of the issue of return. For that reason, a detailed plan of measures has been prepared and it will be given to all relevant international factors. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, who is also the chairman of the Council for Kosovo-Metohija, presented a strategy outlining what the institutions from the state union, Serbia, and those of Kosovos Serbs will hope to achieve in forthcoming domestic and international activities. Srna News Agency, May 10, 2005 Family house of Slobodan Marinkovic blown up (photo BETA: Kosovo Serbs in Pomoravlje region fear for their security after the attack this morning, Gnjilane May 10)
Luckily, at the time of the explosion none of the members of Slobodan's family were at home. The Marinkovic property is inhabited by his widow, their two children, who are both minors, and his father and mother. They were all in another house at the time of the explosion. Slobodan Marinkovic was kidnapped in 1999 and later murdered. He was later identified and buried. After the house was blown up, Kosovo Police Service and international police teams went to the scene and an investigation is in progress.
Radio Television Serbia, Belgrade May 9, 2005 Milenko Vulic from village of Devet Jugovica brutally beaten Milenko Vulic, a 62 year-old Serb man from the village of Devet Jugovica near Pristina, was admitted to the hospital in northern Kosovska Mitrovica today after being beaten up on Saturday by Albanians, deputy hospital director Milan Ivanovic told Tanjug news agency. Ivanovic said that Vulic was brutally beaten by four neighbors of Albanian nationality in front of his own house and that he was admitted to hospital with serious head injuries. According to Vulic, the Albanians told him that he must leave Kosovo. After receiving treatment for head injuries, a neurological specialist was consulted and Vulic was subsequently placed in intensive care for further therapy. "His injuries are serious and it remains to be seen what complications will result from the fact that he was transferred to our hospital with a delay," said Ivanovic. "This attack on a Serb elderly man demonstrates that UNMIK chief Soren Jessen-Petersen's assessments that standards are being fulfilled and that the security situation in the Province is better than it was before are false. All his assessments serve solely to justify the catastrophic UN mission in Kosovo and Metohija," said Ivanovic, who is also the president of the Serb National Council of Northern Kosovo. He condemned the attack on Vulic, emphasizing that it represented "yet another brutal ethnically motivated attack on an innocent elderly Serb in Kosovo and Metohija" and asked when the perpetrators would be found and brought to justice.
Automobile Carrying Serbian Youths Ambushed Pristina, 8 May (SRNA) - This morning at approximately 2:30 a.m. on the road from Pristina to the Serbian village of Donja Brnjica, in the immediate vicinity of Gazimestan, unknown persons wearing camouflage uniforms intercepted an automobile carrying three Serbian young men from Gazimestan. The attackers first allowed two vehicles from a convoy to pass, then jumped out of the bushes next to the road and attempted to stop the last vehicle by pointing a gun at it. Driver Boban Nicic (20) stepped on the gas instead and the attackers then fired multiple shots at the automobile. One bullet hit the right front wheel and two others pierced the rear window of the vehicle. Luckily, Nicic and his two passengers, Bojan Miladinovic(20) and Bojan Ristic (17), were unharmed. Members of the Kosovo Police Service and international police soon arrived on the scene and established that five bullets had been fired. The shot up vehicle was kept in the Vranjevac Police Station while the three Serbian young men were returned home after two and a half hours of questioning with orders, according to Nicic, to stay in their houses. There are approximately 2,500 Serbs still living in this Serbian village just north of Pristina. The only place some 300 Serbian young men and women can go out is Gracanica, some 15 kilometers away, the very place the young Serbs had visited that night before the attack.
SRNA News Agency, May 8, 2005 Grenade lobbed at train Lipljan - On Sunday evening at approximately 7:35 p.m. an unknown perpetrator threw a hand grenade at a train traveling from Kosovska Mitrovica to Lipljan in the immediate vicinity of the cemetery at the entrance to Lipljan. The grenade bounced from the window of the train and exploded. No one was killed or injured. Slavko Janicijevic, a Serb representative from Lipljan, told SRNA that members of KFOR immediately stopped the train, which was transporting some 50 Serbs who were returning from Kosovska Mitrovica. The passengers were then dropped off safely to the Serb quarter of Lipljan with the help of the Kosovo Police Service. An investigation is in progress. The bomb attack caused unrest among the remaining Serbs in central Kosovo and Metohija, especially after last night's attack by unknown persons on three Serbian young men traveling by automobile at the entrance to the village of Donja Brnjica near Pristina.
Grenade planted on gate of Serbian house Kosovska Mitrovica - Early this morning shortly after 2:00 a.m. unknown perpetrators first stoned and then planted a hand grenade on the gate of a house owned by Snezana Cvetnic (a Serb woman) in Sumadinska Street in the multiethnic settlement of Bosnjacka Mahala in the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica. After the stoning neighbors called the Kosovo Police Service, while Snezana Cvetnic and her children Jelena and Nemanja stayed in the house after she observed the grenade on the gate. During the search the Kosovo Police Service found a hand grenade taped to the handle and rigged with a trip wire. At approximately 2:45 a.m. a UN police special unit removed the explosive device, confirmed the UNMIK information service in Pristina. According to statements by eyewitnesses, the attackers fled in the direction of some Albanian houses in Bosnjacka Mahala.
Albanians Set Fire To Building In Serbian Yard
Glas Javnosti daily, Belgrade, May 7, 2005 Decision to build Nazi complex on the eve of May 9 Monument to fascism in central Pristina A memorial complex dedicated to the members of the notorious Skenderbeg SS Division, the Kosovo Regiment and the Albanian gendarmerie to be built on a surface of 1.5 hectares Belgrade - As all of Europe prepares to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the victory against fascism in World War II, at a meeting held on May 4 the Pristina municipal assembly made the decision to build a monument and memorial part dedicated to fascist collaborators, Glas Javnosti learned from its sources in Pristina. The decision foresees the building of a memorial park on a surface of some 1.5 hectares and a monument in the location where Yugoslav officials at that time and Partisan forces executed fascist collaborators, the members of the Second League of Prizren. This organization was founded in 1943 in Prizren upon the initiative of the Gestapo. The biggest role in the resurrection of the Prizren League belonged to Otto Meyer, a colonel in the Abwehr, who together with Karl Krempler, an SS colonel, and in collaboration with the Gestapo, activated their champion, Xhafer Deva. He was placed at the head of the League so they could more easily realize their influence on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija. The military formations were the Albanian gendarmerie, the Kosovo Regiment, and the Skenderbeg SS Division, which engaged a total of more than 11,000 Albanians. Recorded in the chronicle of acts of terror by Albanians from Kosovo and Metohija are crimes in Babuska municipality, forcible expulsion in Urosevac, executions in Velika Hoca, forcible detention (of the population) from Prizren and Grbol, murders in the village of Vitomirica.... Two hundred Serbs were killed just in the district of Djakovica and 5,000 Serbs were taken away to fascist camps in Albania. The participation of the Prizren League through its military formations in the extermination of Kosovo Jews is one of the most shameful episodes in the history of Kosovo. Out of 281 Jews arrested by the military formations of the Second League of Prizren, more than 200 were killed in the Belsen Nazi death camp. The entire Jewish population of Kosovo was destroyed and never recovered to its pre-war numbers. The list of "murdered innocent patriots" (which is what the servants of fascism are called today in the decision of the Pristina municipal assembly includes Albanians who were former soldiers of the SS and the Wehrmacht, policemen of the occupationist gendarmerie, commanders of Albanian paramilitary formations and their helpers. Hence it comes as no surprise that the Municipality of Pristina is not planning any sort of commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the victory against fascism. The memorial tomb dedicated to the heroes and victims of Nazism during World War II in Pristina has been destroyed. The plates bearing the names of fallen fighters (Serbs, Albanians, Turks and Jews) have been removed and destroyed, and the monument is today covered with graffiti celebrating the Kosovo Liberation Army. Pristina municipal assembly's explanation On January 17 the Ali Hadri association of Kosovo historians and families of patriots of November 1944 addressed the Pristina municipal assembly (01. no. 353-682) with the request to establish a location for the raising of a monument dedicated to "patriots from the period 1944-45". The directorate for planning, urbanism and construction concluded, upon considering this proposal and consulting existing plans, that the most favorable and possible location would be the free space in the Taukbasta (Velanija) district in Pristina, where collaborators were executed in 1944-45. R Kosovo's Nazi Past: The Untold Story News on discovering a mass grave with bodies of Serbs killed by Kosovo Liberation Army UN team discovers 22 bodies in Kosovo mass grave The United Nations said Saturday that an investigation of a cave in Western Kosovo had uncovered 22 bodies of non-Albanians believed killed during the province's 1998-99 war between ethnic Albanian rebels and Serb forces. Families of Serb victims visited the cave near Klina UNMIK, Feb 23 April 2005 Representatives from the families of seven victims whose remains have been identified following the finding of human remains in a cave in Klinë/Klina municipality have paid a short visit to the site this afternoon. The families travelled from Serbia proper, accompanied by officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross and by the chairperson of the Council of Ministers' Missing Persons Commission, Mr. Gvozden Gacic. The Head of the Office of Missing Persons and Forensics of UNMIK's Department of Justice, Jose-Pablo Baraybar, took them down to the entrance of the cave where the families laid wreaths and flowers and lit candles. The families then returned to Serbia proper. The seven victims who have been preliminarily identified through DNA testing are Serbs who went missing in Rahovec/Orahovac municipality in 1998. The number of human remains found at the site is now 22. Out of these, OMPF have identified 9 as being the remains of non-Albanian adult males.
Several dozen businesses damaged in powerful explosion in Prizren Beta News Agency, Belgrade PRIZREN - A strong explosion in Prizren has damaged several dozen businesses but no one was injured, advised police today. Prizren regional police spokesman Fatmir Djurdjiali advised that the explosion occurred last night around midnight in a private business in Adem Jashari Street. The explosion was powerful enough to damage 37 other businesses in the vicinity. The explosion has caused great unrest among the citizens of Prizren, and a woman and child living close to the site of the explosion were hospitalized for trauma. Police are conducting an intensive investigation but have not provided information regarding motives or possible suspects in the planting of the explosive. The business where the explosion occurred is owned by Ismailchemala Spahiu. Three years ago explosives were planted and activated in the same location. More News Available on our: Earlier Newsletters can be found at: http://www.kosovo.net/erpkiminfo.html ERP KIM Info-Service is the official Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska and Prizren and works with the blessing of His Grace Bishop Artemije. Additional information on our Diocese and the life of the Kosovo Serb Community may be found at: http://www.kosovo.net If you want to unsubscribe go to the page: http://www.kosovo.net/erpkiminfo.html |
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